Tuesday, April 5, 2016

With Archives Move, Putin Makes an Unforced Error

Paul
Goble

Staunton, April 4 – Vladimir Putin
has committed many crimes, but his political tactics at least from his own
point of view have been brilliant, keeping his opponents off balance and
ensuring that he will retain the support of the Russian population.But now he has made what can only be
described as an unforced error, one that is likely to come back to haunt him.

Yesterday, the Kremlin leader
announced that he was taking personal control of Russia’s Federal Archives
Agency (Rosarkhiv), declaring that he is doing so because of the “special
value” of documents contained there (interfax.ru/russia/501908).

That Soviet and Russian politics has
often been about controlling the past in the name of controlling the future is
no news, and it is certainly the case that the chief current defender of that
country’s security services and their checkered history should want to ensure
that he has absolute control over documents that might be embarrassing or
worse.

But that was true of his
predecessors as well, and none of them chose to take direct control of the
archives, not only because they viewed this as a technical issue but also
because they were confident that they had subordinates who would do their
bidding in that regard.By taking direct
personal control, Putin has raised two serious questions:

On the one hand and most
immediately, are there things in the archives that are so threatening to him
and his regime that he cannot risk having anyone else be in charge? And on the
other and more ominously, is the circle of people on whom he can totally rely
now narrowing to the point that he has no choice but to assume personal
control?

That such questions will now be
asked is beyond question, and the answers, even if they are speculative or
uninformed will harm Putin. Consequently, the Kremlin leader in this regard has
done something even worse than a crime: hehas committed a serious political mistake – and it is certain to haunt
him in the future.